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To assist spatial planning and environmental management policies in coastal areas, the monitoring of urban sprawl and the characterization of the evolution of built-up areas are essential prerequisites. In this perspective, the production of land use data sets on a large-scale is necessary and many governmental and research initiatives have been engaged for this purpose. Taking as a case study the coastal zone of the Côte bleue, in Provence, this paper reports on an experiment of land use mapping on a large-scale, based on a classification made of 44 urban classes compliant with Corine Land Cover. Available with four versions (1998, 2003, 2008 and 2011), the resulting database allows an accurate characterization of the recent evolution of the urbanization. Urban sprawl and urban densification can be studied using spatial analysis. Thus, the transformation of artificial areas appears much higher than urban sprawl. However, urban areas composed of single houses still prevail.

The urban and suburban development is one of the most under-estimated causes of soil destruction. By using tools to characterize land use in the French metropolitan territory, the aim of this paper is to assess the phenomenon of artificialization and its impacts on soils and their environments. Three independent databases for evaluating soil artificialization were used : the TERUTI land use survey (SCEES), the urban area zoning database (ZAU-Insee) and Corine land cover (service de l’observation et des statistiques). The intersection between the different land use databases and the soil map of France at the scale of 1/1 000 000 (Inra, 1998) allowed us to characterize which soil types and which environments are most affected by artificialization. According to the three databases, the most threatened soils globally remain unchanged, with an artificialization rate above 50% of their surface : HISTOSOLS, FLUVIOSOLS dystriques, FLUVIOSOLS eutriques, NEOLUVISOLS, REDUCTISOLS and VERTISOLS. This list is completed by salty soils, according to the TERUTI land use survey. ANDOSOLS, PODZOSOLS, BRUNISOLS DYSTRIQUES, ALOCRISOLS, VERTISOLS and RANKOSOLS seem to be less affected by artificialization. The impact of artificialization was also assessed for each type of environment. The soils are grouped in three main types of environments : cultivated lands, forests and wetlands. The increase of artificialization highly affects wetlands, an environment for which there are major issues in terms of biodiversity, water quality and prevention of natural hazards.

The CORINE programme (initiated in 1985) has created an Information System referring to the European Union countries, which provides administrative, geographical, land use, vegetal cover information, along with different environmental parameters (CORINE, 1994). The CORINE land cover database offers valuable information on the different land covers of the mapped areas. At present the whole Iberian Peninsula is covered by this digitised database.CORINE is a highly valued instrument in the EU countries where it has been completed. It is therefore necessary to check the quality of the information it provides taking into account the large extension, the climate and environmental variety of the mapped surface.This paper consists of an in-depth study, based on various updated sources, of the actual state of the land cover in a specific area in the central part of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) with a surface area of approximately 10,000 sq. km. The information obtained is then compared to the CORINE data for the same area. Our aim is therefore to verify the validity of the latter in a pilot zone by using, for this purpose, databases whose definition is higher than CORINE’s and observe both its degree of updated accuracy as also the suitability of the different categories used by CORINE with the land uses and ecosystems existing today.The paper requires the choice of an appropriate scale, which depends on the nature of the study to be carried out. CORINE forms a good database for the handling of information on land cover on large working scales. The geo-referencing errors detected in the present paper have shown the difficulty of its overlapping with other databases.After the relevant comparisons, which could not be carried out by overlapping, it is proved how CORINE land covers is becoming out of date, taking into account the transformations, changes and development of the present land cover in our area.On the other hand, we consider that the nomenclature of CORINE land cover may not be sufficiently varied in its third level, especially in woodland areas. The results in the grouping of very different formations in the same class. This does not happen, for example, in the urban areas, when a large quantity of classes exist to define the variety of urban land uses.This study has been carried out in the setting of the Project “Modelling the effect of land degradation on climate” (ENV4-CT98-0696) financed by the European Union.